looking for telephoto lens for FZ30

[springrising]

hi everyone, i am new to the forums.

i have an FZ30 that i adore. i am looking to get a telephoto lens for it, ideally about 2x. i looked online, ebay and elsewhere, and am now scratching my head wondering how to differentiate from all the knock off brands and the good stuff.
my questions are:

- does anyone have a specific lens to recommend?
- will any 55mm thread lens work with the FZ30?
- should i even bother with brands like opteka, tokina, etc?

thanks a lot in advance!:D

[genece]

The only 2X lens that seems acceptable to me is the Raynox 2020 Pro......I have one and almost never put it on the camera........The OLY Tcon17 is by far the best bang for the buck and the Nikon 1.7 is the best, but hard to find and very expensive.
And those lenses you listed really do not work well on the FZ30.

You can find lots of info here
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/FZ-30/

[LoveLife]

Everything Gene said is correct.

[springrising]

thanks a lot for the info. i saw the raynox 2020 and was wondering if it was any good. that is probably what i am more likely to buy, as i can not afford to spend $200 on a lens, unfortunately.
that link is great too, thanks!


The only 2X lens that seems acceptable to me is the Raynox 2020 Pro......I have one and almost never put it on the camera........The OLY Tcon17 is by far the best bang for the buck and the Nikon 1.7 is the best, but hard to find and very expensive.
And those lenses you listed really do not work well on the FZ30.

You can find lots of info here
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/FZ-30/

[DarthCroc]

hi everyone, i am new to the forums.

i have an FZ30 that i adore. i am looking to get a telephoto lens for it, ideally about 2x. i looked online, ebay and elsewhere, and am now scratching my head wondering how to differentiate from all the knock off brands and the good stuff.
my questions are:

- does anyone have a specific lens to recommend?
- will any 55mm thread lens work with the FZ30?
- should i even bother with brands like opteka, tokina, etc?

thanks a lot in advance!:D

Here's my limited experience with telephoto lenses for the fuzzy 30:

First, i bought one of those packages from an e-bay store (macro, tele, tripod, battery, etc), the brand on the Telephoto was tokina and let me tell you.. it was cr@p! you could only focus in the middle, the periphery was always blurry and all the photos had a purple tinge to them :mad:

Next i went the retail store way, B&H and got myself an Olympus TCON-17 and i couldn't be happier, photos are sharp and no hint of the purple tinge at all! And the lens is already thread 55mm so it fits like a glove on the Camera

So to resume... I recommend the Olympus TCON-17; yes, any 55mm thread lens will work/fit the Panny FZ30 and lastly, don't bother with cheap branded labels like tokina and opteka.

Just my 2 pesos, laters :p

[LoveLife]

thanks a lot for the info. i saw the raynox 2020 and was wondering if it was any good. that is probably what i am more likely to buy, as i can not afford to spend $200 on a lens, unfortunately.
that link is great too, thanks!

Here are test shots with the FZ30 and many different lenses.
http://lovelife.smugmug.com/gallery/804122#35784559

[Ambriel]

Another vote for the Olympus TCON tele-extender lenses.

Remember though that you can usually only use them at the longer end of the standard lens' zoom length without getting vignetting. Also at 840mm effective length you're going to have a hard job of keeping it still.

I bought a secondhand TCON-14 from Ebay for my FZ50 which takes the length out to around 600mm which I can keep steady enough, especially with the camera's image stabilisation system lending a helping hand.

The TCON-14 is also quite a bit cheaper than the 17, I've found. Watch out for the special variants of these lenses though as some require special adapters (not just the thread step-up/down ring).